Ballroom Blitz
by The Winner
Summary: //#3- Even after all these years, Nick and Maya can still talk on the phone.//All the characters have lives out of the courtroom.//drabble!crack anthology; multiple pairings//Spoilers for GS1-4//
1. Never Would Have Made It

**(A/N: So, I've returned to writing fanfiction after at least two years. After completely wiping my profile and stories clean, I'll start a clean slate with a Phoenix Wright fic/drabble collection/anthology. As for pairings, basically anything goes. Same for genre, format, characters used, setting etc. Possible spoilers for all four games. Forgive me if the characterizations are off. Shutting up now.  
**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Phoenix Wright, I wouldn't be writing this.****)**

* * *

**Never Would Have Made It**

--

If Phoenix had never met his Dollie, the pretty redhead at university, he would probably be an artist or an actor.

At least, this is what he tells himself. After all, Dahlia (or rather, Iris) was the whole reason he became entangled in law. If she hadn't used Phoenix as a tool, he never would have met Mia Fey. He never would have been astounded by Mia's skill in the courtroom. He never would have become a lawyer (after all, Edgeworth wasn't there to inspire him anymore), let alone discover that he had actual talent in court.

He never would have met Maya, either.

(_"Nick, hurry up and get those papers done! You promised we'd go out for burgers!"_

_"Ugh. I know, I know. Just give me about ten minutes."_

_"Fine. But we're gonna watch the Pink Princess marathon."_

_"Sure, sure."_

_"And for movie night I get to choose the movies."_

_"Okay, whatever."_

_"_And _you have to pay for the food."_

_"Of cou- hey!"_

_"Too late, Nick!"_)

Larry would probably be in jail for the murder of his girlfriend.

(_"Hey, Nick, wanna buy a Samurai Dog? Everyone loves them!"_

_"Er, no thanks Larry."_

_"What!? C'mon Nick! Buy one for me!"_

_"Maya, I'm practically bankrupt."_

_"Oh. Okay."_

_"Ugh, don't look at me like that. Fine, I'll get you one."_

_"Hooray!"_

_"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Nick!"_)

Edgeworth would have headed straight down the wrong path, continuing to be the 'Demon Prosecutor' that everyone hated (save for maybe Detective Gumshoe).

(_"Wright, what are you doing with my car?"_

_"I have no idea. Ask Larry."_

_"Ack! Edgey! Well, we _weren't_ going to hijack it, if that's what you were wondering!"_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"Hey, Nick! Why are you all standing around Edgeworth's car?"_

_"It's nothing. Let's go home, Maya."_

_"Okay, I guess..."_

_"Wait, Nick! No! Don't leave me here!"_)

He never would have gotten to know Detective Gumshoe. He never would have beaten Franziska von Karma. He never would have sent Manfred von Karma to jail.

He never would have done all the things that he was legend for, like weaseling the truth out of defendants and witnesses and prosecutors and all the other people he met and befriended along the way. He wouldn't know as much about the Fey family and spiritual channeling. He wouldn't know what a Magatama did or what Psyche-Locks were. There were so many things he wouldn't know.

When he saw Iris that last time in court, before she was imprisoned, he was too shocked with her role in Dahlia's plan to really appreciate what she did for him. (He was also a bit shocked to learn that she still loved him, even after all this time, and he felt a bit guilty that they could never be 'Feenie' and 'Dollie' again.)

It is only much later, while he thinks of would-have-beens and could-have-beens and should-have-beens when he tells her, in his mind, what he should (but couldn't) have told her back when he first became a lawyer.

'_Thanks for everything, Dollie.'_

* * *

**(A/N: This is what happens when I use a different style than I'm used to. Review? Chapter titled after the song "Never Would Have Made It" by Marvin Sapp)  
**


	2. Proper Grooming

**(A/N: I thank everyone who read the first chapter. Yep. It's a teen!Kristoph drabble-thingy set in 2008! He would be about fourteen, I think. Klavier is six. Inspired by the realization that if Kristoph Gavin were real, right now he would be around my age! Kinda. Sorta.  
**

**Disclaimer: It belongs to Capcom, ja? If I owned it, music in 2026 wouldn't be MIDI files.****)**

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**Proper Grooming**

_--  
_

_Even villains were innocent once.  
_

_--_

Fourteen-year-old Kristoph Gavin was a somewhat of an elitist. He turned in all his homework on time, made the honor roll, forced himself to get perfect attendance (What did he care if the other students got sick? So long as he went to school, all was well.) and was an amazing older brother. Because he was such a perfectionist, he took the time to properly groom himself.

_Yes, it's perfectly natural to want to stay groomed,_ he thought as he painted his nails at obscene hours of the night. Once his new manicure dried he would brush his shoulder-length blond hair to perfection and then read himself to sleep. It was a weekly ritual he had kept ever since--

_Creak. _

Kristoph jumped at the noise and growled when he realized it was merely six-year-old Klavier. A steady stream of profanities was hissed when he accidentally knocked over the (_limited, extremely expensive_) bottle of varnish.

"What do you want?" Wide-eyed, Klavier watched as his older brother mopped up the clear mess with an old blue towel.

"Can I paint my nails, too?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"You'll get poisoned and die."

"No I won't! You're lying! Liar!"

"Klavier, please. Just let me clean this up. Why are you even awake?"

"You're always awake really really late on Friday."

"Because I'm a big boy. Now go to sleep."

"But I wanna brush my hair, too!"

"It's too short."

"No it's not!"

"Fine. Go get the purple brush from the drawer." An ecstatic Klavier opened the drawer with glee and held the brush with a sort of reverence. He sat down next to his brother on the floor and tried to slide the brush through his hair, but he was dismayed to find that there were knots, and that he couldn't pull it past his ear. Kristoph, being the the perfect older sibling he was, sighed and pulled the brush out of his poor brother's hair. Then he decided that since, _Hmph, my hair is fine anyway, _he would fix Klavier's hair. They sat in a sort of awkward silence, and he thought that Klavier had fallen asleep. Until a high-pitched voice spoke up.

"What does 'gay' mean?" Kristoph twitched and froze.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well earlier Mama and Papa were talking and Mama was scared and she said you might be gay and- and- and- I think it means that you're sick but I don't _think_ you're sick so-"

"Klavier." Kristoph was seething.

"What?"

"Get. Out."

"So you _are_ gay?! Does that mean you're _dying?!_"

"GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

Klavier squeaked and scampered away in fright. Sometimes his brother was scary, but that was what made him so _cool_!

_When I grow up, I'm gonna be Kristoph!_

--

_'What happened to you, big brother?'_

_'I lost.'_

_'But it was just a silly poker game!'_

_'Precisely. It was just a miscalculation on my part. I didn't realize there were _auditions_ to become his defense attorney.'_

_'You didn't have to become so vengeful, though!'_

_'I was always like this. You just never knew.'_

_'Nein, mein älterer Bruder. You were good once.'  
_

--

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**(A/N: Ah, brotherly love. In case it was too vague/confusing, that tidbit at the end was Klavier talking to Kristoph in prison. Forgive any discrepancies in characterization, events, etc., since I haven't actually finished Apollo Justice yet. I know what happens, though. Klavier is based off of a certain little five-year-old I know. The German was stolen from an online dictionary and supposedly means 'No, my elder brother.' Correct me if I'm wrong. I (_kinda, sorta_) didn't like this very much. Review?)  
**


	3. The Occasional Phone Call

**(A/N: Again, I thank anyone who's reading this fic 8D Little bit of Phoenix/Maya, depending on how you look at it. I'm not necessarily an avid fan of the pairing, but I'm not opposed to it either. And I know that I promised SOMEONE a Klavier/Ema drabble, a young!Franziska/young!Edgeworth drabble (which will probably be set in 2008, since he'd be 16 and she'd be 9-ish, both ages that I could totally write about), and a genius!Godot oneshot, but I'll do that all in my own time.  
**

**Disclaimer: Ace Attorney still belongs to Capcom.****)**

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**The Occasional Phone Call  
**

_--  
_

_Even if they don't see each other, they can still remember, can't they?  
_

_--_

Though Phoenix hasn't seen Maya in years, he does keep in contact with her. He sends her letters-

(_'Daddy, whatcha doing? Are you writing a novel? A grocery list?'_

_'Shh! Not now, Trucy. I'm trying to think.'_)

-and she sends him action hero memorabilia.

(_'Pearly, did you make sure to get all six seasons of Aluminum Samurai: The Legend Begins? I don't think Nick has seen it yet and-'_

_'Of course I did, Mystic Maya! And I decided to give him Aluminum Samurai Trading Cards, too, since we had two unopened starter sets.'_)

Sometimes, when she isn't too busy with her duties as Master or he isn't on a 'mission' (or spending time with Trucy), they have a chance to have a small conversation on the phone. Sometimes, Pearl likes to talk to Phoenix and tell him about everything he's missing. Sometimes, Trucy talks to Maya (and maybe even Pearl, since she once asked her Daddy if 'Mystic Maya' was his 'special someone') and she wonders if this lady, Daddy's friend who she has never met, could have been her new Mommy.

Sometimes she sees a look of pure yearning in Phoenix's eyes when he's on the phone, though she can't tell if it's from nostalgia or longing.

Sometimes she wonders if, miles and miles away, Maya has the same expression on her face.

Most of the time, though, Phoenix doesn't have the chance to call and Maya is far too busy.

When Trucy brings up the lady (_the one that sounds eager and young for her age and likes action heroes and sends lots of presents_) Phoenix smiles a secret smile and tells his adopted daughter that she's an old friend of his. She thinks he's lying because he makes sure that all traces of old friends are gone (_except for the few who are the most important people to him, like Uncle Edgeworth and Uncle Edgeworth's scary little sister and Uncle Larry and Detective Gumshoe and the people who didn't abandon him years ago, but they only have pictures and a few gifts scattered around-_), but he has an entire room in the back of the Wright Anything Agency that's filled with samurai movies, action figures, and the like. There are even a few huge posters for _The Pink Princess_, and Phoenix shrugs and claims that it was a good show when asked about it.

Many years later, when Apollo joins their little family, he asks about the room full of Mr. Wright's samurai paraphernalia. Trucy shrugs and looks to Phoenix for an answer, but he has that old (_bittersweet, wishful_) expression in his eyes.

The phone rings. Phoenix is still staring and Trucy is grinning at her father, so Apollo is the one who answers.

--

_"Hello, Wright Anything Agency. May I ask who's calling?"_

_"Huh? Who is this? Is Nick there?"_

_"Er, I'm Apollo Justice, a defense attorney. I'm sorry, I think you've got the wrong number."_

_"Oh! Well, if Phoenix Wright is there, tell him Maya Fey called.'_

--

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**(A/N: ...Wow, my characterizations were pretty off this time. It sounds like romance even though it really wasn't supposed to be, and I'm experimenting with third person writing styles that switch from POV to POV in a matter of words. I'm used to writing standard first person originals with MY characters and MY personalities or informal and not-as-cool-sounding-third person pieces like the second drabble about Kristoph 8D Enough with my nonsense. Review?)  
**


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